Verizon Misses Bottom Line Expectations in Q1 2014

Verizon posted its first quarter 2014 earnings on Thursday, and while revenue was the strongest it has been in five quarters, the company failed to meet Wall Street’s expectations on the bottom line. Verizon noted an earnings per share (EPS) of 84 cents, missing Wall Street’s estimate of 87 cents, Reuters said Thursday. Still, net income was healthy at $5.9 billion, up 23.3 percent from $4.8 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Verizon Wireless, which is now fully owned by Verizon Communications, added 549,000 retail net connections, including 539,000 postpaid connections — those that who are signed onto a contract. Verizon’s service revenues were up 7.5 percent year-on-year while its retail service revenues of $17.24 million increased 6.7-percent. That may largely be attributed to its full ownership of Verizon Wireless, but CEO Lowell McAdam said he expects the company to maintain these numbers.

The company serves a total of 103.3 million retail connections, including 97.3 million postpaid connections, which is up year-over-year. While connections are up, that doesn’t necessarily point to new customers — instead these could be attributed to new lines for connected devices, such as tablets. The average account has 2.77 connections, Verizon said, and that’s up 3.7 percent year-on-year.

Revenue from FiOS connections increased 15.5 percent on the wireline side. The company added 98,000 new FiOS connections and 57,000 net new FiOS video connections during the quarter. It now serves a total of 6.2 million FiOS connections.